KUTZTOWN, PA. — Cherry Hill, N.J.-based NFI has opened a 1 million-square-foot distribution facility in Kutztown for Ocean Spray. The facility will serve as the distribution center for 40 percent of Ocean Spray’s global volume. The center broke ground in July 2013 and was completed in 10 months. The opening of this facility represents a continuation of the 13-year partnership between NFI and Ocean Spray.
Northeast
FALMOUTH, MASS. — Cambridge Capital Advisors has brokered the sale-leaseback of Inner Harbor Marketplace at 77 Scranton Ave. in Falmouth. Scranton Holdings Corp. sold the 35,000-square-foot shopping center for $9.4 million to Falmouth Retail LLC. The shopping center is anchored by a Windfall Market, which executed a new 15-year triple-net lease upon close of escrow. Additionally, West Marine, which has occupied the center since 1994, exercised a 5-year lease option. Michael Scanio of Cambridge Capital Advisors represented both the seller and buyer in the transaction.
PAINTED POST, N.Y. — Erwin Hospitality Associates has opened a Hampton Inn in Painted Post. Located at 248 Town Center Road, the 98-room hotel is the only Hampton property in Painted Post and the 48th in the state. The hotel features Hampton’s Perfect Mix Lobby, designed with a variety of seating and lighting options for both leisure and business travelers, and well-equipped guestrooms with modern amenities, including microwaves, refrigerators and LCD, flat-screen televisions. Visions Hotels will manage the property, which is owned by Erwin Hospitality.
SOUTHPORT, CONN. — Quincy, Mass.-based The Grossman Companies and Southport-based Summit Development have acquired an office building at 200 Pequot Ave. in Southport. The 12,700-square-foot building sold for $2.4 million or approximately $185 per square foot. The buyers plan to upgrade the property’s common areas and lease out the building, which is currently 43 percent occupied. The undisclosed seller, a former tenant, sold the property directly to the buyers in an off-market transaction.
BOSTON, NEW JERSEY AND CONNECTICUT — HFF has closed the sale of a 24-property, 1.4 million-square-foot retail portfolio with properties located in the greater Boston area, New Jersey and Connecticut. Kimco Realty Corp. (NYSE: KIM) purchased the portfolio for $270 million, including the assumption of approximately $121 million of debt, from G.P.B. Holdings LLC. The portfolio was 96 occupied at the time of sale and anchored by a variety of national and regional tenants, including Walmart, Kohl’s, Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Petco, Pier 1 Imports, Walgreens and CVS/pharmacy, as well as Kings and Aldi supermarkets. Twenty-one properties are located in Massachusetts, two in New Jersey and one in Connecticut. Jim Koury and John Fowler led the HFF investment sales team representing the seller.
NEW YORK CITY — Hersha Hospitality Trust, an owner of upscale hotels in urban gateway markets, has closed on the sale of Hotel 373 in Midtown Manhattan. The hotel sold for $37 million or approximately $529,000 per key. The sales price valued the hotel at $1,680 per square foot and represented an economic capitalization rate of 5.2 percent based on the hotel’s net operating income for the year ending in December 2013. New York City-based Solid Rock Advisors East represented Hersha in the previously announced transaction.
NEW YORK CITY — Madison Realty Capital has closed a $13 million loan to finance the acquisition and redevelopment of a townhouse located at 39 East 72nd Street in New York’s Upper East Side neighborhood. The undisclosed borrower plans to reposition the five-story townhouse as a residential development. Architect and developer Robert B. Lynd constructed the building in 1881 as his personal residence. A mix of commercial tenants, including two art galleries, currently occupies the building.
Boston — Samuels & Associates and its partner Weiner Ventures have completed project financing for Barry’s Corner Residential and Retail Commons in Boston’s Allston neighborhood. The project is the first private development undertaken on Harvard University land in Boston and is subject to a long-term ground lease. Situated at the corner of North Harvard Street and Western Avenue, the site will be redeveloped as a LEED Gold-certified, mixed-use project for non-academic uses. The project will include 325 rental apartment units, 35,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, approximately 180 below-grade parking spaces and 40 on-street parking spaces on two new to-be-created streets within the development. Construction is underway and residential units will be available in August 2015. HFF, on behalf of Samuels & Associates, secured joint venture equity with American Realty Advisors and a construction loan through Northwestern Mutual.
GREAT NECK, N.Y. — The Nassau County Industrial Development Agency has approved an economic development package, including tax breaks, for AvalonBay Communities’ proposed apartment community in Great Neck. The company will construct a multifamily project on a now-defunct petroleum storage facility located at 240 E. Shore Road, which will generate $56.4 million in local economic benefits to the community. The project will offer 191 apartment units with 10 percent of the units designated as affordable workforce housing. Construction is slated to start in December, with completion scheduled for January 2016.
New Jersey’s industrial market took a positive turn in the past 18 months, and now the lack of new development during the downturn has market conditions comparable with any boom period. Occupiers are paying record rents as high as $8 per square foot for new, Class A product, while submarkets such as Port/Airport and Exits 10 and 12 report vacancy below 5 percent. Investor demand for industrial property with credit tenants and decent lease term remaining is literally insatiable. Central New Jersey closed 2013 with 1.2 million square feet of fourth quarter net absorption and a vacancy rate of 6.6 percent, which is a 170–basis-point decrease compared to the end of 2012. Northern New Jersey’s largest -submarket, Meadowlands, has 78.2 million square feet and the submarket posted 1.7 million square feet of net absorption to finish the year with 6.2 percent vacancy. To the south, where average asking rents are $4.87 NNN per square foot, several Central New Jersey submarkets are at sub-6-percent vacancy, including Exit 8A, the region’s largest industrial submarket, which ended 2013 at 5.1 percent vacancy. Mom & Pop, Meet Amazon New Jersey’s traditionally strong base of small- to medium-sized, mom-and-pop end users certainly plays a role …